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Toronto Blue Jays

When Toronto Blue Jays rookie Chris Rowley made his debut on Saturday he became the first graduate of the United States Military Academy to pitch in MLB.

He’s also the first Army product in nearly a century to set foot on a big-league field for an official game as he’s just the second MLB player ever overall to come from West Point.

What he doesn’t have right now? Any type of in-pack baseball card (or even a Topps Now card), meaning his only options for military-minded collectors or Blue Jays fans are just a few team-issue minor league cards.

Your MLB home run leader right now is Eric Thames of the Milwaukee Brewers, who has smacked seven longballs so far. The latest came as part of a 3-for-4 day Monday against the Cubs in Wrigley Field.

The 30-year-old entered this season with 21 homers in his previous three big-league seasons — his last being in 2012 with the Mariners. He hit 12 of those homers as a rookie with the Blue Jays in 2011 but struggled with a career average that’s up to .259 with his .405 start this year. How far off the radar was he? Thames spent the last three years playing in Korea’s KBO League — where he hit 124 homers in 390 games.

Edwin Encarnacion‘s extra-innings homer is the key for today’s newest baseball cards available for only 24 hours via Topps’ online card program. He’ll be signing cards for the moment and there is a Relic also available from the American League Wildcard win.

The card was shown at the close of MLB Network’s Hot Stove morning show and that means it will probably pop up elsewhere, too. Will it continue to be expensive? Of course not — but the appeal, especially with Blue Jays fans, probably won’t diminish.—

The 2015 World Series lineup isn’t set yet, but the details of the world champions’ commemorative baseball card set from Topps are here.

Whether it’s the New York Mets against the Kansas City Royalsor the Toronto Blue Jays, the champs set will include 40 World Series-branded baseball cards with 15 highlights from the team’s postseason run. Atop that, there will be cards for 25 key players on the team as well as cards for the Championship Series and World Series MVPs from the team.

Each case of these will include 16 sets.

>>> Click here to pre-order sets on BlowoutCards.com once a link is available